. Group petitions minister, demands prosecution of company’s mgt
Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin
The alleged killing of a 15-year-old elephant on an oil palm plantation belonging to the Okomu Oil Palm Plc in Edo State is now at the centre of a disagreement between a civil society coalition group, Protection for Okomu National Park and the Environment, and the management of the company.
Workers of the company, had on the directives of the management, attacked and killed the elephant recently.
Following the alleged killing of the elephant by the company’s staff, PONPE petitioned the Minister of Environment, Dr. Mohammed Mahmoud, demanding that the suspected killers of the endangered calf be prosecuted.
PONPE in its petition dated October 8, 2019 and signed by its Convener, Tony Erha, described the hunted baby Elephant as one from the very fewer herds of the endangered and rarest lowland rainforest African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana cyclotis) species that were already becoming extinct in the Okomu National Park, which it described as the last vestiges of lowland forest that is, perhaps, the old protected areas of the sort around the world.
It also stated that both the park and some of its priceless wildlife species were “lavishly named” in the Convention on Treaties of Trades on Endangered Species (CITES) and worldwide sites and biodiversity catalogue.
PONPE also called for more government funding and attention to ensure the full protection of the Okomu National Park and others in the country to prevent illegal poaching of wildlife in such reserves.
The group also called for the thorough investigation of alleged cases of land grabbing, deforestation, environmental degradation and cause of loss of means of livelihood leveled against Okomu Plc and its South African Managing Director, Dr. Graham Hefer, by the host communities, civil society organisations and conservationists in the state.
PONPE alleged that Okomu Plc and its boss went ahead to grab and destroy over 16,000 hectares of assigned and buffer rainforest lands of the Okomu National Park and more of high forest reserve from the Owan forest zone of the state, from which a total of 13,750hectares were revoked and gazetted in “The Edo State Government of Nigeria Gazette, No.16 Vol.19 (page 48 – 50, published on 05th November, 2015…” as reinforced by the Forestry (as amended) Law of 2002.”
The petitioners further chided Okomu Plc for flouting the directives of the environment minister that the company should “carry out mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study, as contained in a letter by the Federal Ministry of Environment, addressed to Dr. Heifer and Okomu PLC on September 22, 2015 (Ref: No. FMEnv/EA/123:271?Vol.1/28).
“Unfortunately, Okomu Plc had long undermined the EIA process by bulldozing, about two years earlier, on January 2014, when the letter was written to it.”
The group further said that “the Nigerian public also wishes to ascertain why Okomu PLC still parades EIA approvals from the same minister of environment, especially on the disputed Okomu PLC Oil Palm Extension II situated on Owan forest zone, whereas the company had breached the revocation order, directives from the Environment Minister and burgled due process of the recommended EIA study.”
PONPE also drew the attention of the minister to the “negligence and complicity with which the Edo State Government, under Mr. Godwin Obaseki, its current governor, has handled the grave impunity by Okomu PLC. Indeed, Governor Obaseki’s support for the company’s careless activities in the state comes very short of the expectations of the public. More so that he was an integral part of the decision making processes that had partly sanctioned the company, which the governor had reversed, not only by going to commission the Okomu PLC’s oil plantation located on a revoked and gazetted land by the immediate past government he was a principal, but by going to commission the Okomu PLC’s premises prohibited by government and refusal to remove Okomu PLC from the revoked land area and buffers of the Okomu National Park, which has again resurfaced as the cause of the hunting of the priceless Elephant.”
The group also sent copies of its petition to the following: the National Park Service, Governor Obaseki, Square II, the Oba of Benin, NESTREA, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Environmental Rights Action, the Senate and House of Representatives’ committee chairmen on environment, Senators and members of the House of Representatives from Edo State.
Efforts by our correspondent to get the reaction of the management of the company to the allegations levelled against it by PONPE proved abortive.
Calls made to its Managing Director, Dr. Hefer, were not picked. He also did not reply text messages sent to his phone as of the time of going to press.